TROMINII Game Review

Reviewed by Amanda Hayes

The summer holidays have started for most and with the majority of us plumping for the Great British staycation this year, evening and rainy day entertainment is a must. If you like games based on strategy & maths and are not keen on plastic the Trominii is a must for your holiday, either at home or away. Trominii is based on dominoes but has three sets of numbers on each tile, it looked really fun so I couldn’t wait to try it out.

When the game arrived it was packed in a brown and black metal tin, shaped like an elongated rhombus and sealed with a transparent wrapper. Inside the tin is a set of instructions, a black material bag with drawstring top, four tile racks and 77 Trominii pieces. The lovely thing is both the racks and the game pieces are cut from layered plywood, not plastic, which not only look smart but are much more tactile.

The game has a basic set of rules and a more advanced set. We were playing as a family with an eight year old, so started with the basic game. First each person takes 5 Trominii pieces from the bag and stands them up on to their slotted rack. The rack is an excellent idea, as you can view the tiles clearly but keeps them hidden from the other players.  You then each pick one more piece and whoever has the piece with the highest accumulation of numbers on is first to go. As in dominoes the numbers are depicted by dots, and you place the number on your piece against the corresponding numbers in the game, you then replace your missing piece with a new piece from the bag. Where it differs dramatically is the shape of the pieces, the rhombus shape means that there a triangle at each end so the pieces can be placed in lots of different ways, our game ended up looking a beautifully shaped flower. It also means that you can have lots of pieces meeting each other and get much higher scores than dominos, rather than just two numbers to add up there could be at least 4, 5 or 6. As in scrabble you keep adding the score throughout the game, with a pen and pad, (not included), until all the pieces are placed down and the highest score wins.

The advanced game becomes more complicated as you can layer pieces on top of each other, join them together to form loops, or remove various pieces, such as all the blanks or fives. It takes more thinking skill but is still suitable for children and adults alike.

It took the three of us around 30 minutes a game for a basic game and we really loved it. It’s a perfect family game and great for maths skills for younger members, I’d say it is suitable from around 6 years old. Our 8 year old wanted to play over and over, as with some skill and strategy, plus a bit of luck with the numbers on the Trominii we could all compete fairly with one another. I loved the fact it was a wooden toy, not plastic, and that you would never bore of it as every game is different. Giving hours of fun I think Trominii is very fairly priced at £24.99 and I would not hesitate to recommend it.

Rating: Highly recommended 5 out of 5

RRP: £24.99

This product can be purchased from the Trominii website here.